Stage 8 was the first summit finish of this year’s Tour which saw a massive shake-up in the General Classification. Blel Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale) took an impressive stage victory after attacking from a five-rider breakaway in the final 25km of the race. Kadri left his companions behind on the first of three climbs to hold on and win by more than two minutes over the GC favourites.
Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) held on to his lead in the general classification after finishing third on the stage, while Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) was the only rider to gain time on Nibali after finishing second on the stage. Several riders made big gains in the GC but all lost time to Nibali who gained four seconds on Sky’s Richie Porte, eight on Frenchmen Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Jean Christophe Peraud (Ag2r La Mondiale), 16 on Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), and 20 on Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team).
Others such as Bauke Mollema (Belkin), Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida), Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol), Michael Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) were even further back, losing between 35 seconds and two minutes 17 seconds.
Read the full stage report and race results of Stage 8 of the 2014 Tour de France.
Enjoy the photos from stage 8 courtesy of Brake Through Media (follow on Instagram and Twitter) and Cor Vos.
- Marcel Kittel and Tony Martin having a laugh before the stage start.
- A small thing you might have noticed this year. Vittel puts the number of stage victories on the number plate of each of the deserving riders. Kittel’s plate has “7V” (for 7 victories).
- The race got off to a frenetic start with plenty of early attacks as the riders left Tomblaine, but none managed to stick initially. Eventually Sylvain Chavanel (IAM) got clear with Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), before Simon Yates (Orica-GreenEdge) led Blel Kadri (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Adrien Petit (Cofidis) across to join the pair. The break managed to gain a maximum advantage of 11 minutes with 51km remaining.
- With 22.5km to go, and 3.5km to the top of the first climb, Blel Kadri put in what turned out to be a race-winning move.
- Tejay van Garderen bounced back from his crash on Friday, riding with the favourites until the final accelerations on the steep finish which didn’t suit his strengths. van gardener moved up from 18th to 13th, at 3:34 behind Nibali.
- Andrew Talansky moved out of the top 10, dropping from 8th to 16th, when crashed on a corner when approaching the base of the final climb. Talansky, who crashed heavily the previous stage struggled with chain problems after the crash, his podium hopes slipped away as he now sits 4:22 behind Nibali.
- Laurens Ten Dam suffering up the final climb (Côte de La Mauselaine) which was a 1.8km rise at an average of 10.3%
- Current World Champion Rui Costa moved down one position on the GC from 11th to 12th in today’s stage.
- Besides taking the stage win, Kadri also took the lead of the KOM classification.
- Alberto Contador took second place on the stage and while this made him move up to 6th in GC, he was only able to put 3 seconds into Nibali’s lead.
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- Richie Porte lost 4 seconds to Nibali’s overall lead, but he managed to move his way up to 3rd position in the overall classification.